Thread: To strop, or not to strop

gnomore,

Welcome to SRP. When stroping go slow and take your time. Speed means nothing. Also keep the blade flat on the strop and definately avoid lifting the spine of the razor. This will roll the edge and a rolled edge will not shave.

As time goes on your stroping will get quicker. But until then, kick back, take your time and enjoy the ride.

I wish you luck and many great shaves.


Terry

Welcome gnomore,

You'll no doubt find some varying answers to your questions, but for me, I always strop before I shave, but not afterwards. Even when my razors got their initial honing from Lynn, I did about 20 laps on the strop before first using it.

Since my beard is sort of light, I only have to shave every other day so my razor gets a day off between shaves. I don't know if that makes a difference or not, but it's worked well for me.

As for maintaining an edge, I have a pre-pasted 4-sided strop from Tony Miller and that has worked very well for touching up my razors. Since the initial honing by Lynn I haven't had to send it in for honing yet (6 months and going).

Bill Ellis offers some nice ready-to-shave razors that you can purchase so that you'll have two or three razors to choose from. Best of luck to you.

As you get more involved in this thing you'll find that there is no clear cut right or wrong way to do many of the things the others spoke about. Everyone is right and everyone is wrong. You need to experiment and try everything and then see what is the correct way for you.

Learning is half the fun, shaving is the other half. Just take it slow at first and keep an open mind with everything.

Welcome g, and have fun here, like the rest of us If you are persistent with learning the straight razor, you will be rewarded with the best shaves in your life, from now on. Read ALL of the classicshaving.com's How to and why section, and if in doubt for something, post here. http://www.classicshaving.com/page/page/590351.htm For a second restored, and always top notch razor, go to Bill Ellis's page , and choose a professionally restored straight razor, which will be every bit as good (if not better) than any new DOVO or TI you'll get.

happy shaving,
Nenad